Re: problems with "mail"

[Sergey Poznyakoff]

Bonjour,

Command line parsing couldn't be the cause of the problem:

> in the case of frm.c(main.c):
[...]
> argc -= c;
> 
> will set argc to 0  and mailbox_name will always be NULL, ignoring
> any --maildir=URL directives. 

No, it won't. After mu_argp_parse, 'c' is set to the index of the
_next not processed option_. Thus, given the input of
`frm --maildir /var/mail mbox', c equals 3 after mu_argp_parse, which
yields *(argv+3)="mbox". As about --maildir option, it is taken care
of by mu_argp_parse itself.

> For mail/mail.c(main):  it is more subtile, 
[...]
> args.file always return NULL and mailbox_create_default(&mbox, NULL) will
> always be call in ignoring any --maildir directives.

Again, this is not so. Parsing of --maildir is done by mu_argp_parse
itself and is not connected in any way with args.file. Now,
args.file is actually initialized to NULL in mail.c:290, as you
have pointed out. But between this point and checking it in mail.c:345
there is a call to mu_argp_parse, which in turn calls parse_opt,
which in its turn sets argp.file (see mail.c:70-80).

Now, let's take a look at the problem  in more detail:

1.
>> In short, I haven't been able.
>> While mailx would show my mail in /var/mail/jordi just invoking it with
>> "mail", mailutils seems to only look after ~/mbox by default.

One of the possible reasons is inconsistent setting of FOLDER or MAIL
variables: the code in mailbox_create_default() favors these over
all other settings (I am not sure this behavior correct, though).

2.
>> 65587:address@hidden:...mailutils-20020326/debian$ mail -f/var/mail/jordi =20
>> mail (mailutils) 0.0.9c, Copyright (C) 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
>> mail is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
>> For details type `warranty'.
>> Send bug reports to <address@hidden>.
>> Can not read mailbox

The problem we are facing is related to locking. Note, that
mail responds `Can not read mailbox'. This message is issued
at mail.c:394 and means that mail was able to open the mailbox
but have failed to scan it.  This is the same problem that I'm
discussing with Sam at the moment: scanning fails since locker_lock
is unable to lock the mailbox at mbx_mboxscan.c:577. The problem
manifests itself in imap4d as well.

Regards,
Sergey